Naruto: Intertwined Fate
by xxAkuxx
Summary: Rewritten! How many find a friend who would stick by you through thick and thin? Uzumaki Natsuki a demon container, Naruto an orphan who cared for his friends. How far will he sink into the darkness to help his friend? Harem, no flames, a bit OOC. Review!
1. Prolouge

This is a semi-experimental Fanfic if you want your input please review, if not, no one likes flamers, pointing out flaws is ok, but going Jason on it is too much.

I don't own Naruto, if I did, he would be smarter.

This chapter is rewritten!

Not very well but next chapter will be all original.

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><p>7 years ago, there was an attack on the Village hidden in the leaves known as Konoha or Konohagakure. This enemy was known as the Kyubbi no Yoko, or the Nine-taied fox demon.<p>

It was the strongest of the nine that were known as bijuu's. It is said that whenever any of these bijuu's appear, death and destruction follow afterward.

The Kyuubi attacked out of nowhere and the village was taken by surprise. Many of the villagers and shinobi alike perished during this attack. During this time, the Fourth Hokage, the Yondaime, fought against it, and triumphed over the Kyuubi, by sealing it inside a newborn infant. No one knows how or what happened during that battle, but it cost the Yondaime his life. This day signifies many things. The death of the strongest ninja in Konohagakure- the Yondaime, the defeat of the Kyuubi, and the day that two infants start their destinies. Yes, this day is October 10th, the birth date of two people that will change the world.

* * *

><p>-Council Meeting-<p>

The room exuded killing intent from both Shinobi and Civilian members alike, as it stood many were calling for death, the death of a child. The child was none other than the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko, who had been sealed by the Yondaime. No one had a problem with the child, but hate always finds a way to turn people into monsters.

That was the situation at the moment. The normally village loving council, who would do anything to protect their home were shouting and screaming, as if trying to call the Shinigami himself in order to smite someone.

"The demon child should be executed while the demon is still weak!" A pink haired civilian council member, Haruna Haruno shouted. All around people were shouting in agreement.

"It killed my son!" another civilian member shouted. The whole council room was in a uproar, many people lost family, homes, and their futures at the hands of the rampaging beast, now they were dead set on killing the abomination of nature.

"Silence!" A commanding voice shouted. Immediately, all the council members, shinobi and civilians alike ceased their bickering. The voice came from Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Sarutobi is the Third Hokage, a few years back, he resigned and handed his position to the Fourth hokage, Minato Namikaze. Sarutobi Hiruzen was known in participating in the 2nd and 3rd shinobi war and is also known as the "Professor" for his extensive knowledge on jutsu's and experience, he is also known as "the God of shinobi"(not sure it this was it). He is known as that for being the strongest Kage in the Elemental Nations. There are many more accomplishment but lets get to the story.

"Hokage-sama, allow me to train the Jinchuuriki into a shinobi, at the moment, Konoha needs to look as strong as possible in order to compete with the other nations." A person named Danzo said with a bandaged arm and eye.

"No Danzo, I will not have the child under you. You will turn the infant to a mindless puppet that will only serve you. No, Minato wanted this child to be a Hero, and that's what this child will be." Hiruzen said.

Danzo held his tongue. Hiruzen already dubbed him a cold bastard and that suited him just fine. But he didn't want the Kyuubi jinchuuriki to be a mindless drone, its heritage was the cornerstone of the village. Daughter of the fourth Hokage, the Yellow flash and the Heiress of the Ushiogakure. Relative of the 1st and 2nd Hokage, Hashirama and Tobirama Senju and distant cousin of Tsunade Senju. The child practically had Kage blood in it and that was way too valuable to be made a simple expenditure weapon. With the right training, the child could bring Konoha into a new age of glory, but Hiruzen seemed to think otherwise.

"That demon is not a Hero, it is a monster. It killed our family's." A Civilian shouted.

"The Child is a Hero, if it wasn't for her, then the Kyuubi would still be rampaging." A man with almost seemingly blind white eyed man named Hiashi Hyuga said.

"I don't care about that, I lost my husband and my clan is in disarray, let's end this meeting already!" A feral looking women named Tsume Inuzuka said.

"Troublesome." A lazy man, named Shikaku Nara said.

"As long as we can keep eating." A...fluffy man named Choza said.

"The most logical thing to do is see how it grows." A stoic man named shibi said.

"What do you mean, Shibi-san?" Hiruzen said.

"We know nothing about the child or its kind. To simply kill it seems...like a waste. We should not jump to conclusions, for all we know, if we kill it, the Demon may be set free." The stoic man now named Shibi said.

"That is a possibility." Hiruzen said.

"Give it to me, under my tutelage she will become a force to be reckoned with." Danzo said.

"No! Danzo step down or I will force you to leave this meeting." Hiruzen said. Danzo was about to retort but decided against it.

"So, what will we do with it?" the White eyed man said.

"The first thing would be to stop calling the child an "it". The child is completely human, the other thing would be to impose a law. From this point on, anyone that calls the child the Kyuubi shall be put to death. It won't matter if you are a civilian council member or a shinobi, if you utter the words, you sentence yourself to death." Hiruzen said.

The room burst with screaming, but as soon as someone called it a demon, the Hokage called Anbu and killed the man on the spot, that stopped the racket.

"Pardon me Hokage-sama, but what is the child's name?" Shibi said.

The Hokage tried to recall the name. If he remembered right, Minato wished his child to be named Naruto, after the main character in his students book, Jiraiya. But that was IF the child was born a boy. He looked down and looked at the details of the baby GIRL in front of him. She had

Red hair, with three whisker marks on each cheeks. She looked very much like her mother, Kushina Uzumaki, except for her eyes. They were a deep ocean blue, much like her Father, Minato Namikaze.

He recalled how happy they were when they found out Kushina was pregnant, it was the first time he had seen Kushina cry, but they were tears of joy in knowing that she would have a family again. Minato was also ecstatic, he began planning a training schedule for his child, he still remembers how he would fuss about how his child would be able to put the arrogant Uchiha's in their place. Also how Kushina scolded him for starting to get too over eccentric about the child. He/she wasn't even born yet and he was already thinking of the day he would pass on the Hokage mantle to his child.

But now that they're both gone, there is no one to protect the young Uzumaki-Namikaze, if Iwa ever learned about the child being the daughter of their enemies, they would take the child as a breeding machine or just kill her. She needs to be hidden, if you're going to hide a leaf, hide it inside a forest.

If Naruto wasn't an option then something similar, Naruko... Naru...Natsumi?...

"Ths childs name is..."

* * *

><p>-4 years later-<p>

Young Naruto was spending his time in an orphanage in Konoha. From what he was told, he was found in the outskirts of the Village. It's not known if he was a child of the village or a foreign visitor. He had blond sunkissed spiky hair. His face had child fat like any and his eyes were a dark purple color enough that you could mistake them for black eyes or dark blue depending on the light. He was playing by himself because the kids wanted to play something else. He was looking around when he spotted a girl the same age as him.

She had red hair that reached to her shoulders, she had three whisker marks on each cheek and blue eyes. Her child fat was roundish and made her look like a tomato, but strangely he found it cute.

The thing that seemed weird was that she was very dirty. Her hair was tangled in various places and sticking out, usually the matriach helps the girls with their hair. Her clothes were basically almost rags. They were torn from various places and also very dirty, the thing that didn't seem right was she looked like she hadn't eaten in days. But being a kid, he didn't pay much attention to it and went to ask her to play with him.

He approached the girl in hopes of playing.

"Hi there, wanna play?" He asked.

She didn't respond.

"Hello, you in there?" He asked again, getting impatient, he was a child, so he didn't understand when people wanted to be left alone.

Again she didn't respond.

"Hey! Tomato girl, I said Hi!" He said loudly.

She responded to that.

"I'm not a Tomato, Teme!" She yelled.

Naruto blinked, "What's a Teme?" He asked, he hadn't heard that word before.

"Umm… I don't know." She said, she remembered it from some of the people that passed her and insulted her, oddly that one stuck in her mind. "What do you want?" She asked bluntly.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, I said if you wanted to play." Naruto asked again.

"what did you say?" The girl asked shocked, sure she's played with other kids before but that was before the Matron dragged them away and told them to never play with her again. It was she that asked someone to play not the other way around.

"I said if you want to play?" He said.

"Why do you want to play with me?" She asked backing away a bit, thinking it was some sort of trick, she wouldn't put it past some people.

"Because I want to, all the kids wanted to play something else and you look like you want to play." Naruto said seeing the girl fidgeting with anticipation or nervousness.

"Okay, what are we gonna play?" She finally asked, at least she would get to play for a while.

"How about-" He started saying but he got cut off with some kind of growl coming from the girls stomach.

"Teeheehee, I'm hungry." She says rubbing the back of her neck, and smiling.

"Well you can't play with an empty stomach, come on, I'll take you to a place with awesome ramen." Naruto said.

"Ra...men?" She says tilting her head.

"Its a food, I'll pay, I got some money from working for a old man, he says if I do his outside work, then he will give me 1000 ryou each time. I got a lot saved up." He says with a smile showing a wad of money that he had collected..

"Wow." Is all she says.

"Come on, let me take you." He says, grabs her hand and drags her.

* * *

><p>-Ichiraku's-<p>

Teuchi Ichiraku is a middle aged man, he runs a ramen stand with his daughter Ayame. For abouut 6 months, a little boy has been coming here and eating his ramen. He saw a two for one special one day and decided to try it. He instantly loved it and became a regular. After a few times, he met his daughter Ayame. They hit it off easily and became fast friends even though she's a few years older. Usually he comes either around lunchtime or evening, who knows where he was getting the money but a customer is a customer.

Today is different, today he brought a person with him. Usually he would be glad, more customers and he got to meet his favorite customer's friend. But he wasn't exactly thrilled when he brought the friend. He came running through the entrance like usual, but he was holding HER.

"Hey Teuchi-jiji, I'm back and I'm starving." He says with a smile.

"O-oh... Hey Naruto, who's your friend?" He asked hesitantly.

"I just met her, we were going to play but she was hungry, so I brought her here to taste the food of the gods." He said cheerfully. Despite her being there, Teuchi couldn't help but laugh, and his friend joined in.

"Haha, still energetic, so what will you and your...Friend like to order." Teuchi said as if choosing his words carefully.

"Hmm... I want 2 Miso and 1 beef. What will you want?" He asked her.

"Umm... what he's having." She says avoiding eye contact.

"Come on, don't be afraid, Teuchi-jiji won't bite, right?" He asked.

"Y-yeah, nice to meet you missy, it's nice to meet a friend of Naruto's, whenever you want to eat, just come here ok." He said sincerely. After watching the girl for a few minutes, he held nothing against the girl but he had never before talked to a person in her…situation so he had no way of understaning what it meant to contain the Kyuubi. But looking at her at the moment he was a bit confused, she couldn't have been the Kyuubi, otherwise she would be... I don't know scary? But after what he say, it looked like she was more afraid of even approaching a stranger than try and reign eternal pain and suffering upon them. It reminded him of a kicked puppy.

Her eyes lit up instantly. "Okay!" she cheered, she was good at telling a person's character, after a few years of solely observing people, she learned quite a bit of human behavior in certain instances..

As they both ate, Ayame came and stared at the girl, she heard rumors about her and was a bit wary. But after watching her and Naruto talk to her like she was normal, she joined in and somehow became fast friends, and by the end she was calling Ayame, Ayame-neechan. What surprised both of them was she was eating more than Naruto.

Naruto stated after they finished eating that she was a good girl because "There is no evil person that loves Ramen." Even though they may have thought otherwise, Teuchi and Ayame were glad that he managed to convince them, although unknowingly. After that, they went back to the orphanage and started playing.

One thing Naruto noticed immediately what kind of girl she was, she was very loud and could talk for what seemed like hours, and always seemed full of energy. She was like a child on caffeine, she probably was too. But one of the things he noticed was while they were playing, adults around them would drag other people away from the girl and would glare at her. The girl pretended not to notice but there was only so much one can cover up.

Naruto managed to pick up little conversations around them. They tended to say, 'don't go near that girl', or 'never talk to her' or the occasional silent whisper of 'demon brat'. Of course, he had no idea what they meant so he let it go, but it stuck to him. She was nice, so why was everyone being mean to her?

Naruto was also very energetic, but one thing seperated him from everybody else, he saw things differently, not the ninja way or the civilian way, he saw things with something they all don't have, that even Konoha's so called 'Genius's" dont have. That thing is called... Common Sense.

They played with each other the whole day, doing stuff from playing in the sandbox to playing in the swings. As the sunset started to set, they walked back to the orphanage.

"Today was the best day ever!" The girl said exuberantly

"Same here, I've never played with someone that long. It was the best…umm…" He trailed off.

"What is it?" She asked, confused.

"What was your name again?" He asked sheepishly, he just played with the girl the whole day and he didn't even know her name.

"I never gave you one." She smiled teasingly, Naruto just looked away slightly embarrassed. "My name is Uzumaki Natsuki. Nice to meet ya!"

"My name is Naruto, nice to meet you." Naruto asked politely, ticking off the red headed girl.

"What was that? It sounded all formally and stuff. You should just say it like whatever." She cheered to herself, showing more enthusiasm.

"That's how we were taught to introduce ourselves in the orphanage. Be polite and you might end up getting adopted. Didn't they teach you?" Naruto asked.

"No, they always send me to my room when people come." Natsuki scoffed, though she muttered something that Naruto heard "Stupid old hags, always…" and he couldn't make out what she said after that.

"What do you-" Naruto started saying but he was cut off by the slam of the door on the orphanage entrance. The matron was looking at the girl with hate. Stomping towards both of them, Naruto and Natsuki started retreating slowly until the matron was in front of them.

"What do you think you're doing GIRL!" She said with vemon in her voice.

"N-nothing, we were just playing." the girl said.

"Playing! Don't lie to me girl, you were probably going to eat him or something weren't you." the Matriarch said.

"How the hell was she going to eat me?" Naruto asked nervously.

"Shut up gaki! What were you doing girl!" She barked out.

" We were just playing!" the girl said loudly.

"Its true, Ma'am, I wanted to play a different game but the other kids didn't want to, then I saw her and asked if she wanted to play." Naruto said.

"No need to lie to this...Demon. Go back to the house, and don't speak of this." The Matriarch said.

"But-" he started saying.

"Now!" She snarled.

Out of fear, he went back inside. He continued to play with the girl because she was a fun person to be around with. Though the matrons kept insisting that he should stay away from her or else she would do something to him. He didn't believe them. With each passing day, they both got to know each other a bit better and the Matrons started sneaking around. It wasn't until the day of there 5th birthday since Naruto didn't know when he was actually born approached that things became bad.

* * *

><p>(October 10 – 5 years after the Kyuubi attack.)<p>

Naruto was running around looking for a birthday present for Natsuki. It was her birthday tomorrow and he wanted to get her something, something orange since she loved the color but wore none of it. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a fairly simple hair clip, colored orange. Thinking about it, he decided to go for it, since her hair was always a mess and got into her eyes. Before he realized it, the sun was already down and people were having a celebration of the Kyuubi's defeat.

As he went to Natsuki's room, he noticed she wasn't in. Deciding to make it a surprise, he put it under her pillow and waited for her to get home. After 4 hours she didn't arrive and he was seriously worried. It was past curfew and she wasn't back. He walked out the front door which was strange because the matrons would usually be patrolling, but he thought of it as being lucky and left.

He ran around looking for Natsuki, he passed by the center of town and noticed that a good amount of people were missing. He overheard something about a 'fox hunt'. He didn't pay much attention to it as he kept searching.

As he searched, he saw a mass of people converged in one place. Like any curious child he approached the crowd. It wasn't until he was a few feet from the crowd that the Matron from the Orphanage noticed he was there, a cruel smirk erupted from her face.

"Ah, it's the Demon's friend. Look everyone, we have an uninvited friend." She smiled ruthlessly.

Everyone turned their bodies and gazed at the young boy, if it could be possible, a smirk so wide it appeared as if it would rip their heads in half appeared on everyone. Naruto was too scared to move, and in less than a minute, he was grabbed and dragged by his hair into the center of the mass of people. What he saw horrified him till the day he died.

Uzumaki Natsuki knew today was a bad day, as it was since she could remember, the people liked to play a game called 'Fox Hunt' on her birthday. As she quickly realized, she was determine to hide. But as much as she tried, they always found her, having hundreds of people look for someone would cause that to happen.

She curled up in a ball and tried as best to protect herself, it wasn't anything new. They would eventually stop and she could go back to the orphanage and go to sleep, maybe sleep next to Naruto, she felt like she didn't want to sleep alone that day. Eventually she heard some lady she recognized as the Matron of the orphanage yell something. After a minute, she raised her head, only to find dark pools of purple eyes looking straight at her.

Why was he here!

Despair and dread sunk onto her as well as something else…Rage.

Naruto, her first and best friend. Her only source of happiness, and because of her, he was going to suffer. Why? Why did everyone around her have to suffer? Her eyes started to soften as her eyes glistened. She saw the smirks of the villagers aimed at her, they wanted her to suffer, and if she wasn't going to show weakness, then they'd use other means to hurt her.

By using her best friend against her.

Naruto looked shocked. Natsuki was covered in wounds and her clothes were ripped. All he could think was why they were doing this to her. The answer came to him like a sign from above.

"Look here Kyuubi Brat, your friend is here. Aren't you going to say hi?" A man said. Kyuubi? He wondered, which he said out loud.

"You don't know? Well that's no good, I'll tell you a secret gaki, seeing as how you'll never see each other again." The man said and came closer to his ear and whispered. "The Kyuubi didn't die, it was put inside the girl. She's the Kyuubi!" the man said.

His eyes widen before looking down at Natsuki.

She saw his eyes, she could tell what was in them. Fear and rage, just like everyone else. She could almost feel her heart breaking, they were the eyes she never wanted to see on him.

Naruto's mind was going crazy. She was the Kyuubi? The big monster that attacked the village 5 years ago? That made no sense, how can she be the Kyuubi? The killer of his parents? It was idiotic, sure he didn't know anything about it, 'put it inside the girl' didn't help much either. A spark of rage passed his head for a brief second before fading. How could he think about her like that? He knew her for longer than any of the people here, so who were they to judge?

He shouted, "Shut up! How would you guys know anything about her, I've been with her for months and I haven't seen any of you at least talk to her, who are you to say that!"

Natsuki's eyes shined with happiness, was there someone in the village that didn't hate her without a doubt. For the first time in her life, she felt bliss.

Unfortunately it did not last.

A blow to the head, hard enough to knock Naruto unconscious, the villagers sneered at the child. How would he, an abandoned orphan know what they suffered.

"Don't worry, he won't be around anymore. We'll sell him into slavery." The Matron said, she had been planning to do it for some time now. It was revenge against the Fox.

They started dragging the boy away into places unknown. The mob started to disperse as they saw the horror stricken face of the red haired child and decided it was enough.

Natsuki tried to move, but her body didn't allow it, all she could do was look at her first and most precious friend as they dragged him away, crying to herself she lost consciousness.

The next day, she woke up in a hospital. She immediately bolted up and saw the Hokage, but at the moment she didn't care about that. She began yelling at him asking him if Naruto was alright. The Hokage asked who was Naruto, after she explained who he was, the Hokage ordered an Anbu to find Naruto, but when he returned, he was informed there was no one living in the orphanage named Naruto, no records or even a single trace of him.

The Hokage decided to move her out of the orphanage, the Anbu he sent said that the orphanage showed inadequate living conditions. The Matrons were fired and the children were moved. Natsuki went back to pick up whatever stuff she had, she decided to lay down on the bed for a minute. As she hit the pillow, she felt something, a ruffling noise. She reached under her pillow and pulled out a bag. Reaching inside there was a note.

'Happy Birthday, Natsuki

From Naruto.'

She cried, she got a present for her birthday, her first birthday gift ever. But at that moment she didn't want a present, she wanted her friend.

* * *

><p>(A few days later)<p>

Naruto woke up feeling very sluggish. His eyes were unfocused, as he tried to stand his balance was out of whack. He tried to walk forward only to stumble and fall. After his concentration returned, he noticed he was chained. From there he panicked. What the hell happened?

"So your finally awake." A voice said.

Naruto turned around to see an old man, in his 50's chained. His hair was a dull black color with grayish eyes. His clothes was basically rags. But aside from that, he looked very frail.

"W-where am I?" Naruto asked. He was in what looked like a stone jail.

"Well I don't know what you did to get yourself in here kid but you're in the undesirable chamber." The man said.

"The…what?" Naruto asked.

"The undesirable chamber. You know, the cell they put you in when you mess up big time." Naruto looked confused. "You really don't know?"

"No! One moment, I'm watching my friend get mobbed by a bunch of villagers and the next I'm hit in the head and I'm here." Naruto said hysterically.

"Calm down already. Your giving me a headache." Responded the old man.

Naruto took some time before calming down and gathered his wits. He was in an unknown place with an unknown person due to unknown reason and unknown way of escape. First he had to learn where the hell was he!

"Ok, calm down Naruto and get yourself together." He told himself out loud. "Ok first things first, what's your name old guy?" Naruto asked bluntly.

The man snorted " I ain't old yet gaki, if I can still chew my food then I ain't old. But besides that the names Kojuro." The man now named Kojuro said.

"Kojuro-san, can you tell me where I am or how I got here?" Naruto asked.

"You don't know kid? Man, you must be some piece of work to get sent here immediately. This place is called Paradise lost. It's a slave rig but the difference from other slave chains is that this is a one stop. Well that's technically not true, there is a way out but few rarely make it out, or even want to leave." He said.

Naruto swallowed a lump in his throat, how did things go so wrong.

"And…" He asked hesitantly, " How do you escape?" He asked.

"I'll show you, now follow me." Kojuro asked, standing up and walking towards a door. Naruto followed closely behind, hoping it wasn't something too drastic. The feeling in his stomach seemed to be against him. The man opened the door to reveal…games?

It seemed like a Casino, but with more games. There was various types of games, one which you would anticipate from a Casino but it also had other games like Shogi and some little figurines with a sign that said 'Chess' which he hadn't played before.

"What is all this?" Naruto asked.

"This…is Paradise lost. A big casino. From shinobi to regular civilians, those who found out something or did something that can't be fixed, they are sent here, though its usually civilians because ninja can run away and get declared missing-nin. That's why I'm so surprised, I've been here a long time kid and I've never seen someone as young as you." Kojuro commented.

It was crazy, it made no sense to him, why was this expensive thing here? Why allow these 'convicted' people to play games?

"We're forced to." Kojuro suddenly interjected.

"What?" Naruto said surprised.

"I saw that look. You were wondering why there were even games here right?" Naruto nodded. "It's because of this." Kojuro brought the collar of his shirt down to reveal some sort of squiggles.

"What's that?" Naruto said, looking at the squiggles and then at his own as he noticed they were the same.

"This is an explosive seal. Its used only in this place, the air is humid in here, and the longer you stay, the more it starts to smudge. It usually takes about 5 days for it to do so but when those days are up-" As he said that, a loud explosion was heard.

"You blow up." He stated, almost grinning at the despair of the young boy, a pity he would die so soon.

"W-what! Then I'm going to die!" Naruto screeched out.

"Yeah, you've been out for a day, you only got 4 more days to go."

"Fuck! How do I survive then!" Naruto asked desperately.

"The only way to survive is too win." He responded.

"Win?"

"Yes, win. You see those people down there…" He pointed at the people below. "They're not playing because its fun, they're playing because it's either that or die." Kojuro said.

"So…to stay alive I have to play? But how, and what did you mean by they don't want to leave." Naruto asked.

"You need 100,000 ryou in order to fix your seal over there." He pointed at a 'Repair' sign on the side of each corner of the big room. "And the reason some people don't want to leave is because in here, they get to have everything. As long as they win, they have money and with money, you can buy anything, even women." Kojuro grinned lecherously.

"Women? Why would you buy a girl?" Naruto asked.

"Er..I'll tell you when your older." He said.

"Alright I guess."

"Well good luck kid, your gonna need it." Kojuro said, waving goodbye.

"Wait, how am I going to get the money and how will I carry it?" Naruto asked.

"Look in your pocket kid." Kojuro yelled back.

Digging into his pocket, he saw what seemed to be a card with squiggles just like before. But it had instructions in it. It read Transfer seal.

_Transfer seal: In order to have a form of security from theft, this seal acts as a storage. When one wins a game, the card is handed to the dealer, he will transfer actual money into the card and the number you see on top is the amount of money you carry. If one wishes to escape from 'Paradise lost' you must obtain a total of 500 million Ryou. But it is ultimately up to the individual if he/she wishes to be free, it is not enforced or demanded._

Naruto could feel his face lose color. 500 million Ryou, an unbelievable amount, and he was holding a card that held 300 Ryou. Just to live, he needed 100,000 Ryou.

He needed to survive. It didn't matter for what at the moment, it was a race against time, and time had all the cards. He knew there was no way to earn enough with the simpler games and card games were too easy to be bribed.. So he chose to play either shogi or 'Chess'/

He studied them. He watched every move made by thousands of people and each of them reacted differently. The possibilities of infinite amount of possibilities. Naruto's mind worked with immense speed, with the threat of his very existence in jeopardy, with adrenaline pumping into him non-stop, his mind struggled to keep up. Various simulation running in his mind, it affected his mentality. His mind in order to alleviate itself started making a new persona.

Naruto was aware of this was happening, and he accepted it. All the good, all the bad, he would take it in. Despair, anger, hate, love, turmoil, death… he would carry the weight of those emotions and not bat an eye at them.

His last day and he needed to get 100,000 Ryou by the end of the day, he still had a measly 300 Ryou. In order to play better, he would play many games at once.

As many players started gathering around, they saw a small boy sitting in the center of 3 different games. The boy had bags under his eyes but that didn't stop the blank stare that were his eyes. As he spoke, many couldn't help but shudder for unknown reasons.

"Gentlemen, would you like to play a game?"

The smirk never left the child's face.

* * *

><p>How was that? Was it completely different than before? Please feel free to review.<p>

It took me 2 days to do this chapter, I don't know why.

Anyways thank you for reading.

Chapter two is already done but I want a bit of reviews for this one, I'll post the 2nd chapter before I go to work tomorrow.

Ja ne.


	2. Consequences of the past

Thanks for the support for those that reviewed.

Now, onto the story!

This has been rewritten!

**I do not own Naruto, if I did, he'd have a kickass sword, which he will have in my fanfic.**

**The Uchiha Massacre has not taken place yet!**

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><p>(Konoha – 8 years after the Kyuubi attack)<p>

'Its been more than 3 years' Thought Naruto as he walked towards his new home.

He had spent nearly 3 years in Paradise lost. It earned him many things, like information, secrets,, followers, and power.

He learned many things in Paradise lost, such as those that can be trusted, those who will betray, those who you seek for help and those who can be allies.

In truth, he could have left Paradise lost a months ago but he decided while he was in the den of secret holders to learn as much as he could.

Danzo, Kyuubi attack, Yondaime, Konoha, Civilian Council, anything could be learned through there, including various rumors that might or might not be rumors. But very few things interested him above all else.

The Uzumaki clan.

The name peaked his interest when he heard some old people reminisce about a long forgotten clan known as the Uzumaki clan. Those old buzzers couldn't stop talking about them, apparently they were a rowdy bunch. Some would call them loyal friends and some would call them demon's in human skin.

What surprised Naruto was their description of them. It was their red hair, almost a trademark for Uzumaki. The other being extremely proficient with seals. Of course, that immediately brought up the old memory of his dear friend, Uzumaki Natsuki.

Apparently the Uzumaki were attacked out of fear from 3 shinobi villages, and it was one hell of a battle apparently. After that, the Uzumaki scattered and if they had to guess there were only a handful left.

Of course that brought up more questitons like, if Natsuki was an Uzumaki, then why wasn't she treated better? Ushiogakure and Konoha were allies according to his information so why were they condemning an Uzumaki, who's potential is exponential.

So in order to find out he sent spies to find out. With the money he won from Paradise lost, many mouths were loosened, especially from the Civilian council. He had yet to go through the reports but he would do so once he got settled in.

That was roughly 2 days ago.

He spent his first day looking around Konoha after getting his citizenship in Konoha. When he looked around things seemed more…grey. He noticed, everything seemed to have darkened. Maybe it was the effect of Paradise lost or maybe he lost his naïveity and innocence.

But still, he had several things he needed to do, such as get back into contact with Natsuki. He really needed to get back in touch with her. It wasn't like he liked her or anything, sure they were friends but when your trapped, one tends to think.

One needs to cling onto hope, whatever hope necessary to get passed whatever emotional stress they're experiencing while locked up. Also his deepest bond with anyone in his short life was with her and they did separate in less favorable circumstances.

He was worried about her, hours upon hours of thinking of worse scenario's of what could have happened were in Naruto's head. He just wanted closure honestly, to make sure she was alive and kicking, most likely someone else's butt with her attitude.

He had already taken care of registering to be a ninja. There was no problem whatsoever, it seemed that one didn't even need parental permission to register, it was only a formality. Really, he might not have been a spy but Konoha is too lax with their security, he was pretty sure that there were spies all around Konoha already.

He quickly snapped his mind out of his thoughts as he arrived in the room in which he would be spending the next 5 years learning how to be a ninja. He knocked on the door, signaling he was there.

He overheard the teacher, Iruka Umino if he remembered right telling the other kids that there was going to be a new student joining them.

"Come in." He heard the voice through the door.

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><p>Uzumaki Natsuki was having a normal day for once. She woke up, she ate some ramen, and then walked to the Academy where she had been spending the last 3 months in. She had her expectations up, honestly it wasn't going as she hoped. It didn't help that she didn't have many friends, it was probably a bad idea to go ballistic on them the moment she walked into the class. But in her defense, they were asking for it.<p>

Really, boys could be so stupid. On the very first day, the boys walked up to her and started calling her names, she didn't say anything because she thought they were being stupid. But when they called her a Tomato, all bets were off.

Only her friends can call her that. Actually lets correct that, not even her friends could call her that, only her best friend. Actually lets correct that once more, only her best friend could call her that and hope to live with his head not sustaining large amount of blunt trauma. Only her best friend that went missing.

It had been 3 years since that day. She still wore the present she got from him, it covered her hair from getting in her eyes, and it was orange, really it was perfect for her. That's what made it more sad.

She really couldn't blame it on him. She also knew she couldn't blame it on herself either or the villagers, or maybe they were all at fault. Natsuki for not telling Naruto about her problems, Naruto for provoking the villagers and the villagers for taking her best friend away to unknown places.

She cried so much that day. She really couldn't look at anyone for a few months. She was fine with the occasional rare beating, it only happened when everyone was piss drunk or on her birthday. She couldn't even look at the Hokage either, she felt compelled to blame him at least for a while, why couldn't any of the Anbu people keep watch over the village? Why couldn't they save one child?

The Hokage looked into the matter personally. While he was tempted to say it was an imaginary friend and the villages hate was getting to her, there were several reports that stated that Natsuki had been indeed playing with a young boy named Naruto, the Ichiraku family also supported it.

The Hokage started to get suspicious and sent Anbu to pick up the Matron's in Natsuki's orphanage. It had only been 3 days since Natsuki was sent to the hospital and the matrons were jumpy. As soon as they heard they were going to the T&I department did they squeal like pigs.

Apparently they had been selling children in the black markets. Originally they had been planning on sending young Naruto in some point in the future but it was a perfect time and they wanted to cover their tracks. They had done so too hastily, the Matrons used thugs and 'adopted' children from the orphanage and then took them into the slave rigs never to be seen again. They had set up a meeting with Naruto in the near future and send him away.

Apparently they had something against Naruto because they were Kyuubi haters, and seeing as how he refused to leave Natsuki, they grew mad. As the months started passing, they couldn't hold it in anymore.

The Hokage was outraged, the Matrons claimed they did it for the good of Konoha…they were executed shortly.

When the Hokage visited Natsuki in her new apartment, she didn't even once look at him in the eyes. It hurt, how could he, the 3rd Hokage not protect a single child.

The Hokage put Anbu to guard Natsuki from that day forward, the occasional beatings became a thing of the past but it took a while for the red head to trust him once more, and even then it wasn't what it was before.

Of course, that didn't stop Natsuki from giving into despair. She tried to make friends, in fact, she helped out the Hyuuga Heiress, Hinata from being picked on. Nothing like a kick in the face to make stupid bullies from running away. Then there was Ino and Sakura who she helped from another girl named Ami.

They hung around each other for a while until they all entered the Academy. That's when it started going downhill. Hinata started training more since the Kumo incident and Ino and Sakura became enamored with the young Uchiha Sasuke. She made friends/acquaintances with his sister Hitomi but she didn't like to hang around the boys often, it brought back some memories.

So right now she was sitting in her chair, half-listening to Iruka-sensei talking about some random fact about how to throw a senbon or something, or maybe it was how to sharpen a kunai?

She was conflicted, she knew she wanted attention, but how to get the attention was the problem. She really didn't want to cause problems for the third but with all the glares she was receiving, she wanted to maybe she could play a prank on the villagers, yeah that would be a good stress reliever.

Suddenly there was a knock on the sliding doors. Everyone wondered who it was, that question was immediately answered by Iruka-sensei who seemed as if he remembered something.

"Ah, that reminds me, we're getting a new student. He just moved to Konohagakure so make sure you guys show him how great Konoha is alright?" Iruka said.

There was a resounding "Hai." In the classroom.

'Ah, there's a transfer student.' She thought looking out the window, not so much a thought as much as a passing cloud,

The door slid opened and for some reason the footsteps were heard throughout the class. The sound of chalk grinding against the board, as the new student wrote his name. The sound of clatter was heard as the chalk he used lay on the bar of the chalkboard.

"Hello." The new person said, it struck a chord with Natsuki.

'Th-That voice!' She thought. She still remembered his voice. Sure it sounded slightly deeper but it was still his voice. Slowly turning with her eyes shut. Slowly she opened them up, hoping it wasn't some or of dream or twisted joke.

Blue met purple.

The same purple eyes that would gaze at her, showing no resentment, no hate, no loathe, just whatever he felt at the moment. The same purple eyes that reminded her of a night sky, how she missed those eyes, the eyes of her best friend.

He wore a grayish sweater with a large vertical black strip down the middle of it, he had a black undershirt and had black shorts on. His hair was slightly more tame than before and he still had baby fat around the face. But overall he looked the same as before.

Naruto stared at the girl, the first thing he notice was her red hair, the long red hair that he liked, it was his favorite color after all. He could see the birthday present that he bought for her that seemed like a long time ago. Her blue eyes, so pure and innocent, oblivious to the darker side of the world.

She wore a fishnet shirt under a white kimono top. She wore blue khaki pants and her shirt had a white spiral behind it. Of course he realized what that symbol was and already planned on asking her where she got the shirt because someone knew about the Uzumaki clan and held back information.

"Nice to meet you, I look forward to working with all of you." Naruto said, returning to his 'new guy' persona. It would look too suspicious if he suddenly called her out at the moment, apparently Natsuki was thinking something similar or maybe she had a reputation she wanted to keep.

"Alright Naruto, there's a chair available next to Natsuki. Natsuki raise your hand." Iruka said, Natsuki slowly raised her hand and saw a small smile spread from his mouth. He walked towards the seat next to hers, she couldn't stop hearing the murmurs of the girls he passed by, 'oh he's cute' or 'his blonde hair is so dreamy', oh how she wanted to kill them all at that moment.

Naruto sat on his chair next to the red head and introduced himself "Hello, names Naruto, what's yours?" He said with a smile.

It stung. Did he not remember her or was he just a different person that just looked astonishingly like her friend. Or maybe it was someone trying to hurt her again. One way or another she was going to find out.

"Hi! Name's Uzumaki Natsuki, future Hokage –teebayo." She grinned.

"Nice to meet you." He said with an amused voice. She started to lose hope that he was her friend or even remembered her, just as she was going to sigh in resignation she heard a mumble that was meant to be heard, "I'm glad you enjoyed the present I gave you." She turned her head to Naruto only to find him looking ahead.

She was going to get answers.

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><p>In Naruto's opinion, the Ninja Academy so far was a waste of time. It doesn't really take that much time to train a chakra user to get to genin level. During the previous world wars, genin were being sent out of the academy within 1 year of preparation, not 5 years.<p>

There was also the fact that the standards were lowered radically. From what he could tell, the standards were lowered to levels that even civilians could have a chance to pass. The poor fools signed up to their deaths by doing that.

So it wasn't a surprise once taijutsu and throwing practice started. As expected, civilian students did bad to ok grades in both terms. Clan students however was different. They were raised in a manner that befitted a future shinobi, but in times of peace the knife tends to lose its edge. They weren't to Naruto's standards, but apparently they were somewhere between normal to great. He felt a bit insulted in their capacity so far, hell he'd been targeted by assassin's in Paradise lost already, by children younger than them.

Paradise lost is that kind of place.

There were some that did catch his eye, such as the Uchiha twins, the Nara who deemed everything too troublesome and the Inuzuka whose Taijutsu was upper tier in the Academy.

However he was concerned about the treatment of Uzumaki Natsuki. Her taijutsu stance was sloppy but the proctor made no announcement to correct it, and with target practice, he could see upon impact with the target, it did not stay or missed. He could easily tell due to his experience with cheaters in Paradise lost that the Kunai's and Shuriken were dulled or bent slightly so there trajectory was off and that the weapons don't stick to the wood.

It seemed that even hatred seeped into the shinobi ranks.

But she did have a few things above the rest.

That was her endurance and energy.

That's why he wasn't surprised when class went on break for lunch that he was whisked away within a second that the teacher left and before all the girls noticed he left before they could maw..err ask him questions politely.

Naruto found himself on the roof, pushed against the wall by a very angry Natsuki. She had an aura that just screamed 'You die now.' Behind her.

"Where the fuck were you? Where did they take you!" Natsuki growled. She was really pissed for some reason.

She had been desperately wanting to find out. What kind of hell hole did she damn her friend to?

"It doesn't matter. I'm here and that's what matters." Naruto stated in monotone.

Wrong answer.

Naruto got a right hook to the face. _Strike one._

Man did she pack a punch.

But Paradise lost isn't a place for kids.

Naruto stood his ground, that punch rattled his brain but nothing serious.

"Where!" She asked again.

"Doesn't matter." He stated.

She punched him again. _Strike two._

"Tell me!" She yelled out.

"No!" He said.

Another punch. _Strike three. All bets are off._

This time he caught it and retaliated. He kneed her stomach causing her to spit saliva. Moving back a step, he performed a roundhouse kick, sending the girl skidding across the roof.

Naruto stared at her coldly, "You don't order me around, just because you were my friend doesn't give you control over my life."

Natsuki coughed for a few seconds before staring at Naruto. "You bastard." She sneered.

"Bastard…I probably am but that doesn't mean anything to me. I came back just to see you but I guess I was a fool to believe everything would be fine." Naruto said with a neutral expression.

He couldn't help but ask himself, was he trying to reclaim his childhood? Why did he return in the first place? Was it for her, was it worth coming back to the corrupt village known as Konohagakure?

Natsuki charged forward, ignoring the sting in her eyes. The person who she believe to be her best friend… what was he now? Did she believe just because he was back that nothing had changed? That everything would be alright, that they could still live in the naïve innocent world they created when they were young?

No, as time marches forth, so do people. Now, two different people were standing in front of them. One person, who would trust her friend above all else was fighting against that person. Her previous mindset of positive attitude had been shattered since that day three years ago. Now she was in turmoil with herself, clinging onto past belief or search for anew. She was so sure that the boy in front of her would help her, but maybe she was wrong.

Across her stood the boy, with cold eyes. The eyes that wouldn't frighten her or glare at her with intense hate were gone. In there place stood an indifferent boy who would cut off his own arm if it meant it no longer served any use. They weren't the eyes she missed, he wasn't the boy she missed. It was like someone took his soul and put whoever was occupying his body.

"Who are you!" She screamed out as she threw punches and kicks at the boy who moved to the side without any care.

"Pardon?" He asked.

"Who are you? Your definitely not the Naruto I know. Tell me, what did you do to him!" She yelled out desperately, clinging to hope that it wasn't the Naruto she knew.

How Kami hates her.

"Really, since I'm not some cheery guy who would help someone for the hell of it, I'm not Naruto. Because I'm not like I was 3 years ago I'm not Naruto. Because I'm not the person you hoped I'd be, I'm not Naruto. Am I right?" He asked, pinning the girl to the wall, her hands behind her as she struggled to break free.

"Let me go, Teme!" She yelled out.

"Or what? You'll try and attack me again, you could see that didn't work. To be honest, your skills are pathetic. But what surprises me more is that you did nothing to try and fix it. Were you so much in the past that you didn't move forward? Did you join the Academy to get stronger, but you've done nothing to improve. What is it you want?" He said.

"Screw you!" She shouted, she was angry, how could he read her like a book. Her fears were coming true, her insecurities about everyone was proving true, she couldn't trust anyone.

"Why did you not ask for help? Were you too afraid? Were you too scared to even ask?"

"Shut up!" She yelled, not wanting to hear what he was saying.

"Then tell me, what were you expecting when you came here? Why did you want to become a shinobi!" He yelled at her.

"SHUT UP!"

"THEN TELL ME!"

"Because I didn't want to be weak! I didn't want to lose someone again!" She yelled out, she somehow found the strength to break free of her bindings and stared at Naruto with Fury.

"It was my fault, it was because of me that you became whatever you are. It was because of me you were sent to whoever know where. All of it, it was me." She started crying, tears were coming back.

Naruto just stared. What he feared was right. The incident left a bigger scar on her than she realized. It wasn't that she wanted to protect, it was because she wanted to protect herself. She wanted strength to not feel pain anymore, she wanted to isolate herself. Create a wall between everyone else and herself, only relying on herself for everything. He didn't want her to turn out like other Jinchuuriki, the boy in Suna was a perfect example. So he did the one thing he could do.

Smash that wall and get through her defense.

This was the result.

A frail girl scared to get hurt.

She didn't trust anyone, and without anyone to trust, she was slowly loosing herself.

It sickened him to do this to her.

"You idiot!" Naruto yelled at her, punching her, sending her sprawling on the floor. "Those were things outside of our control! It was bad, horrible but if we let that change us then why even live! When things go bad should we give up! When we think we can't handle it do we throw away everything!" Naruto yelled.

"Then, what do I do? What can I do to make up for it?" She said.

"Live…live a better life. Don't throw it away look for happiness dammit!" He reached and grabbed he collar, looking at her in the eye. "There are people in the world that have had it worse than us, I've seen them. They've fallen, oh kami how they fell. I'm not going to let you turn out like them. Even if I have to make you hate me, I'll make sure it doesn't happen."

He…he cared? That was the thought that was running through Natsuki's mind. She thought whatever happened during his time away turned him into whatever it was that was standing in front of her. But apparently she was mistaken.

"Don't try and be by yourself! We human's want to be alone but we can't BE alone. We seek out other people whether we want to or not. So its time to be selfish, we're greedy people after all, we want happiness and some are willing to do whatever is necessary to get it. But what about you? Will you look into the past and ignore the future?"

Her mind was still reeling. He wanted to help her…HE…wanted to HELP HER. It was such a foreign thought to her, one of the rare few that helped her, it brought a warm feeling from her stomach when she thought of it. But he was right, before he came she was thinking of playing a prank to get attention but at the same time she wanted them at a distance.

What was she doing? This wasn't like her at all! Sure, he might have changed but so had she, but between the two of them, she was worse. If she met up with her past 5 year old self, she was sure that she would kick her own ass. Why shouldn't she, she was acting like she was a damn wall flower.

Naruto saw the flare in her eyes. The same flare that she had years ago, unfortunately he didn't see the punch aimed at his stomach…or the kick after it.

Naruto was sprawled on the floor looking at the clouds pass by as Natsuki overshadowed him. He couldn't help but grin as she was doing the same.

"Quite a welcome home, isn't it." Naruto asked.

Her grin got larger, "Yup." She said as she sat down next to him.

It was an sincere and awkward silence.

Naruto decided to speak.

"This isn't something kids like us should be talking about is it?" Naruto said, getting comfortable and sitting up right.

"Nope." Natsuki answered with simplicity.

"The world is really messed up"

"Yup."

"But at least we know we can rely on each other, right?"

"Mhm."

"You gonna actually say something?" Naruto asked.

"Hmm…" She shrugged her shoulders.

They didn't notice that they were getting closer to each other each time they talked. By the end, Natsuki was laying her head on Naruto's shoulder, Naruto was too tired to care, it was a bit of a rollercoaster after all. By the time there break ended, Natsuki grabbed Naruto and said,

"You tell anyone, I'll kill you."

Naruto nodded, already knowing it would happen, it was within the possibilities after all. He watched her walk back to the classroom. He waited a bit before a man in his late 30's came out.

"Is that all?" He said.

"Yes, thank you for your service." Naruto said. The man nodded and vanished in a swirl of leaves.

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><p>Naruto sighed, he paid someone to put up silencing seals to prevent any ninja or people from wandering to the roof, so the conversation went by without anyone knowing it.<p>

'**All according to plan'**

"Shut up Kuro-Ou(Black King)."

'**Come now, is that any way to speak to a king?'**

'You and your disillusions Kuro-Ou. This wasn't a plan, this was to break her shell she created around herself.'

'**Manipulation you mean. But it matters not, it would be bad to have an unstable Jinchuuriki.****'**

'She'd be an insult to the Uzumaki name is she did.'

'**Oh! Your going to keep that promise? How ra****re.'**

'Of course, she's meant to do bigger things, and I want to be by her side when it happens.'

'**You do know that sounds corny right. It'****s not like you love her or anything, yet anyways.'**

'I know, but… things will become interesting if I stay by her.'

'…**We really have changed haven't we?"**

'Yeah, and there's no going back.'

'**I prefer it this way, and seeing as you are me, then you feel t****he same. Don't wait too long to let me play once more, until next time.'**

'Until next time, partner.'

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><p>Naruto let out a sigh once more, really Paradise lost did more to him that he thought. Another personality inside him mind, one that he created himself…and now, free to communicate with each other…it was like his other half or something.<p>

They both accepted each other, but unlike ying and yang, black and white and all that stuff, they preferred to stay in the middle, stuck between both, capable of being both yet none at the same time.

Life was troublesome, that was for sure.

But he'd be lying if he said he didn't care.

Just a step at a time.

Take things as they come…

…and see what life has to offer.

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><p>Yo people, I was bore d and I decided to do something, and this is that something. I know I went a different way then the first version but Naruto needed a background, otherwise he'd be a self insert, sure I could have given him some sort of super cool bloodline since he didn't know who his parents were but that's not enough.<p>

Anyways, I'm redo-ing the pairings. Sure it will be a harem but I'll keep it secret this time, no fun if you already know who's going to be in it.

But I do want an opinion on something. Do you think I should bring in an OC for a pairing, I mean, you tend to get sick or same pairings over and over eventually right? Maybe a change of pace.

But anyways, I'm going to work on either The way Fate Dealt the Cards or a High school of the dead crossover, I'm not sure which one.

Please ask quesions because I'm getting a feeling some people want to ask.

Till next time.


	3. Devil with Wings

Alright lets get the show on the road!

Speaking of roads, I'm like WTH at the latest Naruto. Madara freaking beat up 5 kage's and split Tsunade in half! That can be taken wrong in various ways. Anyways, I apologize for those that waited a long time for this chapter. School started and I've been busy since.

Now to get the show on the road…again…

Disclamer: I do not own Naruto, I can barely afford my current lifestyle.

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><p>The Devil with Wings<p>

It was a troublesome day.

That was what Naruto concluded.

One day around the unpredictable, stubborn, short- tempered girl known as Uzumaki Natsuki, and that was enough fun for a week. How could he have seen it? Sure they mentioned the Uzumaki clan was a rowdy bunch but they never mentioned nothing such as what happened that day.

It had only been less than 24 hours since he saw Natsuki again. School ended, he walked back to his apartment and took a look around, making marks in his head to visit the location in order to decorate his apartment again. He went to sleep fairly early, maybe he could tell the next day would be troublesome.

(Next Morning)

Naruto woke up, feeling drowsy, he really needed some caffeine. He really had to curse his body, the damn thing couldn't stay up without an energy boost, stupid kid body, he could force himself but he'd be burned out the next day.

Naruto shook his head, it always sucked to make a new base of operation, he hated cleaning up after all. Naruto stood up and dragged himself to take a quick bath before continuing with his day.

He had to reflect on what happened yesterday, he had come back to Konoha, the village that sold him into slavery. Should he be happy that he was back? Should he spite Konoha for its sins? Or should he thank it for allowing him the chance to gain power?

It was very confusing, blame the village as a whole or blame a single person? Both choices led to hate, but it seemed like such an odd word at the time now.

Hate.

Such a powerful emotion, yet at the moment, it held no hold over him, maybe he had already forgotten his hatred? Time heals all wounds, that's what they say but it will never heal if one keeps picking at the wound.

His thoughts were broken when he heard knocking on the door, he really didn't want to go and get it, it was probably the neighbors welcoming him, after all he made sure that no one knew he was there from Paradise Lost, it would be too complicated to explain and/or get away. He chose to ignore the bell, the bath time was his time, if it was important they could wait.

After a few more minutes in the shower, he left the bathroom with a towel, he didn't bring his other clothes because he was alone in the apartment, he could run around naked if he wanted to.

Of course, that's what all kids do at least once, right?

He exited his room and started walking towards his room to get changed when he caught something off the corner of his eye. He looked at the direction of the object where he found a certain red headed girl eating a cup of noodles just sitting on his kitchen table. She just looked up from her euphoria and looked at a towel clad Naruto.

"Yo." She lifted her arm up and gave a half-hearted wave.

The silence was awkward.

Naruto just decided to ignore it, he wasn't in some Shonen manga where he would get embarrassed from seeing a girl look at him practically naked, it wasn't like he hadn't seen his fair share of the female body, so he just ignored it and started changing.

Natsuki just stood there thinking if maybe her random impulses would one day get her in trouble, but she let that thought go, Naruto was her friend…maybe. She wasn't too sure at the moment but seeing as how he didn't do anything yet, he might still be friends with her. But still, she knew there were lines one shouldn't cross, and unfortunately she didn't know where they were.

Naruto came out fully dressed in light brown shorts, a mesh shirt underneath a white shirt and an open blue long sleeved sweater. He wore black shinobi shoes and had a small pouch for carrying stuff strapped on to his shorts.

Naruto looked at the girl and decided to ask.

"How the hell did you know where I lived?" He asked.

"I followed you yesterday." Natsuki shrugged, it wasn't a big deal right?

"…You know what, I'm not even going to go into that, there are so many thing wrong with it…How did you get in?" He said.

"I knocked on the door, you didn't answer so I climbed the window." She said with a tone that made it sound like she was talking about the weather.

"Why didn't you wait!? What in kami's name possessed you to think that it was alright to barge into another person's house?" He asked, seriously, what was wrong with this girl?

"I felt like it." She replied simply, finishing off her ramen cup.

Silence.

'This girl…' Naruto thought as his eyebrow twitched, He really couldn't understand the girl in front of him, was she just that impulsive? Or was it the manner in how she grew up? Or was she just trying to rile him up, but all he could think was '…this girl is an impulsive airhead!' He would have sworn the girl was making that innocent face if he wasn't already aware how weird Uzumaki's were.

"Calm down Naruto, just let it go…" He muttered to himself, he swiftly shook his head and looked at the slightly amused girl, she was definitely enjoying it. "So, why are you here?" He said.

"I came to see if you wanted to hang out, but I saw that you have nothing in your house so I decided it would be a good idea to help decorate this place with things I want, aren't I a good friend." She said while grinning like a loon.

"The best, now before I decide to smash my fist into that skull you call your head, let's get going." He said, making Natsuki nod and start going out of his apartment.

Naruto followed after her after grabbing his wallet, he supposed it wouldn't be too bad to spend the day with Natsuki, though he could already tell it wasn't going to be normal.

Naruto and Natsuki walked around looking for a good store to buy stuff from, though he did notice the glares he was receiving, albeit a marginally small amount by what he saw Natsuki was getting. She held her head a bit low and was smiling the whole time. It was really pissing him off, that thing was fake, it didn't belong there.

"Do you know now?" He said suddenly drawing her attention.

"What?" She said, not knowing what he meant.

"Do you remember… the reason they're glaring at you." He said.

Natsuki made a sharp intake of air before answering…" How…?"

"Do I know?" He finished the sentence for her, making her nod her head in silence. "I was there remember. They tried to turn me against you. It was also another reason I was taken, they couldn't let anyone know that they told someone, it was against the law."

"The…law?..." She asked, not understanding. She knew that people weren't suppose to say it, she figured that they had at least a bit of morality, but maybe that wasn't the case. She had also forgotten that he knew about the Kyuubi, she hadn't told the Hokage that she knew.

"It'll be better to talk about it when we're not in public." Naruto said, earning a nod from the red headed girl.

She nodded, thankful for his self-awareness, if it was her, she would have been begging to know, regardless of their location. She wasn't a great secret keeper or quiet for that matter.

"Sounds….okay. Anyways, what do you want to do? Go get food or stuff for your house?" She asked,

"First we find the furniture and have it delivered, then we go for clothes, get a bite to eat and get groceries last." Naruto said.

"Do you think you'll get a fair deal, I mean I'm not liked here and well…you know…" Natsuki trailed off, she knew how she was hated, she was still awkward about it but she wasn't going to pussy-foot around it.

"Don't worry, I got it under control." Naruto said, his smile erupting to a chesire grin.

"If you say so." Natsuki said, it was his money, he could do whatever he wanted with it, as long as he bought her stuff. She would make sure of that.

Both of them eventually found a shop that Naruto called just the place he was looking for, However Natsuki…

"Your serious!?" Natsuki said, pointing at the building they were about to enter.

It looked old and in need of repairs. But otherwise it seemed normal as it was surrounded by similar looking buildings. They showed signs of repair and old age but nothing too drastic.

"This is the place." Naruto said, nodding to himself in confirmation.

"But it looks so… you know." Natsuki said. It looked too plain honestly. It had no actual appeal, it almost looked too nomal.

"Don't let that convince you. Often times the most normal thing is what's deadly. After all isn't a Kunai the most normal weaponry for ninja's, that doesn't stop it from slitting your neck." Naruto commented.

"Point." She said and rubbed her neck, it was true after all, she was sure that one can even kill with a stick. Actually there was a lot of things that could kill someone now that she thought about it.

"Come on." Naruto said, already ahead of the girl. Natsuki cried out to wait but he continued on. He entered the store. It was plain, standard and didn't have much appeal. In front of the cash register, the clerk was sitting very relaxed reading an orange book he knew was the Icha Icha series.

"Excuse me sir, can I buy that?" Naruto said pointing at a kitchen knife set, then he pointed at some simple things like sheets and dishes. Once that was done, Naruto asked for the price.

"Your total is 666 yen. That's quite an unlucky number customer-san. Maybe you should buy something to get rid of the bad luck." The man said half-heartedly, not really paying attention.

"Well you know what they say, the devil looks after his own." Naruto said.

Suddenly the man's demeanor changed. The lazy store owners eyes turned sharp and cunning. His eyes almost seemed to close and he had a sickly sweet smile that seemed to radiate sleaziness and utter mischief, he reminded Natsuki who was shocked at the change of a rat.

"My my, my dear customer, you have a way with words. But you better pick your words wisely, they can land you in trouble one day my boy." The man's face stayed smiling but there was an underlining threat, it made Natsuki's spine shiver. What had she gotten into, why did Naruto not look affected at all.

"Oh really?" Naruto taunted, earning a shocked look from Natsuki, was he crazy or something!?

"Yes customer-san, after all everyone knows that the devil doesn't exist." The shopkeeper laughed merrily.

"Hmm…I wouldn't be so sure, after all the greatest trick the devil pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." Naruto said.

The shopkeeper went quiet as a ghost. "Understood."

The shopkeeper then walked to a door and tapped it a number of times and pauses every so often. To Natsuki's surprise and Naruto's expectancy, a very hidden rotating door…rotated to reveal…the shopkeeper?

"It seems we have a most intriguing guest today." The second shopkeeper said.

"That we do, my brother that we do." The first shopkeeper said.

It was silent until Natsuki decided to finally break it. "Hold on, what the hell just happen. I just walked into a random shop, got totally mind blown and now there's some sort of clone of that bastard! What the hell is going on?" Natsuki yelled.

"It's quite rude not to introduce yourself you know." The first shopkeeper said.

"How barbaric, what a silly little princess we have here." The second shopkeeper said, while grinning.

Natsuki gnashed her teeth, these kinds of people were the ones she wasn't good with, they could rile her up so easily it wasn't even funny. " Uzumaki Natsuki, Academy student and future Kunoichi. Now how about you introduce yourself, Thing A and Thing B." Natsuki said the last part sarcastically.

"My my, what an attitude. She'll be a spit fire when she's older. But as gentlemen, we must introduce ourselves. My name is Kotaro." Said the first shopkeeper.

"And my name is Kentaro." The Second shopkeeper said.

"And we're the once in a lifetime twins." They said together.

"Huh?" Natsuki didn't know how to respond while Naruto chuckled, he remembered his own confusion when he heard of those two.

Answering Natsuki's unasked question. "Well you see, we aren't related to each other… at all. No family ties, no blood ties, or even genetics. We are completely different people that just look like each other." Kentaro said.

"What?" Natsuki said, still very confused.

"Did you know that somewhere out in that world, there is someone that looks almost exactly like you, whether in the past or in the future, and in this world of ninja, there's very little hope of finding the other person, your doppelganger if you will. That's why it's a once in a lifetime chance." Kotaro finishes

"Oh." It really creeped her out knowing that there was someone out there that looked like her. What would happen if they suddenly came to Konoha and took over her life and was actually some sort of spy that was trying to take over the world…

The wonders of a child's mind folks.

"Kotaro, I'd rather not get any attention, the longer Natsuki is with us, the more attention we draw to ourselves." Naruto said.

"Wait what?" Natsuki asked.

"That is true, then customer-sama, follow me." Kotaro said.

Natsuki and Naruto followed Kotaro to the other side of the hidden door leaving Kentaro to close the door behind them. They walked down a corridor until they reached a room. The room was vastly more decorated than the one before, and it seemed to be filled with furniture, weapons, anything that one might need.

"So what will you require Customer-sama?" Kotaro said.

"I will require the standard for a 3LDK along with a few shinobi scroll that contain chakra control exercises, anything you have on Fuinjutsu and any information that you have on the Uzumaki clan." He said, gaining a gasp out of Natsuki.

"Understood, anything else?" Kotaro said.

"Yes, keep me updated on the Council meetings and the conditions of the clan's in Konoha. I want these things at my residence, have them delivered before sunset. Have someone that is able to silence the surroundings there also, I have business there later and need it secure. That is all." Naruto said, his voice monotone.

"Understood. Thank you very much young master." Kentaro finished writing.

"Good, come on now, Natsuki." Naruto said, going in a different direction from where they came.

"Wait…Aren't you going to pay?" Natsuki said, confused as to what just happened and where they were going.

"Out." Naruto said, holding a door knob and opening it.

"Huh?" Natsuki said, looking at the surroundings and found herself leaving a regular looking house. "This is so weird." She felt like she was being mind fucked!

"How about some Ramen?" Naruto said, earning a rapid nod from Natsuki. She really wanted to be in her safe area right now, no more stupid weird people with evil looking faces!

* * *

><p>(Ichiraku's stallstore/thingy)

Slurp.

Slurp.

Burp.

"Ah, that hit the spot." Natsuki said, while reaching for another bowl of ramen. Naruto just stared at the girl, he'd seen more manners from a dog! He wondered if that was just her or her lack of a parental figure.

They arrived after the lunch rush so there was no one around, Natsuki ordered 4 bowls of ramen while Naruto just stuck with 1 large bowl. If he was younger he would eat his fill but he knew how unhealthy ramen was, even cooked like it was in Ichiraku's, it was still lacking in nutrients. The Ichiraku duo seemed to remember him but only vaguely but nonetheless they welcomed him with welcome arms.

After a while he saw the results of the ramen eating girl.

She had no table manners.

He had a small twitch in his eyebrow, he wondered if the girl before him was going to drive him to having grey hair at a young age. Did he really have to teach the girl how to behave?

He glanced. He saw her literally inhaling her ramen, sending some stray soup drops to his face.

Yeah, he had to.

"Natsuki, for kami's sake don't tell me that's how you eat ramen?" Naruto said, already thinking of what to say.

"Hmm? Yeah, why?" Natsuki said, not knowing what he meant.

The Ichiraku father and daughter just glanced at the two customers. It wasn't the first time they have tried to fix the girls eating habits, but for the love of ramen they couldn't get her to stop. So they left her to her way of eating, to each their own right? It wasn't the first time she brought a friend to eat either, and they failed to get the red head to use table manners, they really wanted to see what the blonde would do, she seemed to actually value his opinion.

"You are insulting the ramen gods." He decided to just sprout bullshit.

There was a gasp from the 3 other people in the area.

"W-What?" Natsuki stuttered.

"Like I said, you have insulted the gods of ramen." Naruto said.

"Lies! Blasphemy! How dare you desecrate the god of ramen in his ramen stand!" Natsuki yelled.

"Then tell me why you do not enjoy it! Bask in it's taste, don't inhale. Look at the…er…divine broth of the gods and see. You waste it!" Naruto countered.

It was a strange sight that welcomed Ino Yamanaka, Hinata Hyuga, and Sakura Haruno. While they were not that big on eating out, especially considering how young they were, they did love the ramen that the red head from class often ate, they did know where to find the girl. It was to be a girl's night out, kid version so it was more like playing in the park time.

They didn't expect the new boy in class making wild speeches about ramen which the red headed girl seemed to pay attention, the owner and his daughter just stood bemused at the scene.

It wasn't until Natsuki nodded to the boy and began eating at a sedate rate did the blonde haired girl speak up.

"Hey, you're that new guy, Naru- something right?" She said pointing at the boy.

Both the ramen eating duo turned to see a group of girls around their age. Naruto wondered how the blonde girl could be so blunt. He turned his head to gaze at his companion and saw she wasn't reacting at all so he assumed they were friends or at least knew each other. So as the new person in town or class he figured he should introduce himself… again.

"Nice to meet you, name's Naruto, and you are…?" Naruto asked.

"The noisy blonde one is Ino and the pink haired one is Sakura, named for obvious reasons. The shy one is Hinata, girls say hello." Natsuki commanded.

Ino just groaned while Sakura and Hinata listened to her, she was the most assertive of the girls and they were going to introduce themselves anyway, they learned early on that life would be simpler if they listened to the fiery haired girl with blue eyes.

"My name is Ino Yamanaka, a pleasure." She said rather monotone.

"Hello, my name is Sakura Haruno, nice to meet you." Sakura said a bit shyly. It seemed that she was a bit of a follower to one Ino.

"H-Hello, I'm Hinata Hyuga, I-It's a pleasure to meet you." Hinata said rather formally.

'What strange future kunoichi have gathered.' Naruto thought.

"So what are you doing here?" Natsuki blurted out.

"We were going to play in the park, we wanted to see if you wanted to play." Hinata said, only slightly stuttering (I won't do stutters that much, killer on the hands)

"I would but I have to show this guy around." Natsuki said, pointing at Naruto.

Naruto would have commented that she practically forced herself on him but decided against it. With any luck they would drag her away and leave him be so he could go about his business, she only saw a little business, that was an experience only worth 10 yen out of a million yen.

"Then bring him with us." Ino said.

'Damn.' He forgot that normal kids don't know the meaning of the word tact yet.

"I guess we can, what do you think Naruto?" Natsuki asked.

'I can't refuse, I have no actual reason to.' Naruto thought.

"I don't mind, it's a chance to get to know my classmates after all." Naruto said with a poker face and smiled. The girls looked happy while Natsuki just gave a frown, it seemed she could tell that the smile was utterly fake.

"Great." Hinata commented while poking her fingers a bit.

Natsuki leaned in a bit and whispered "Hinata is a bit shy to anyone she meets, and Sakura is kind of a wuss. Ino is the boss of them." She said. Naruto nodded already seeing how each girl acted.

"So, we're going to the park right?" Naruto asked. He got a nod from Sakura.

"Yeah, there's a whole bunch of flowers right now and we can make necklaces and stuff, we might find a four leaf clover." Sakura said with a small smile.

Naruto nodded and got up to pay for his and Natsuki's ramen. He noticed the glares stopped. Well he knew it helped that there were two clan head daughters and a civilian's daughter that had no idea what was happening.

Surprisingly it was Hinata, the shyest of the group that spoke up.

"N-Naruto-san, where did you come from?" She asked, trying to act more confident.

Naruto let out a sigh, he had already planned his tale but he needed to act the part.

"I lived near the border of Kirigakure, at the time there was war going on but our family was left alone. We took care of refugees that came around when injured, but eventually my mom and dad chose to become merchants in hopes of striking it rich. They let me choose if I wanted to come to Konoha or go with them and I chose here." Naruto said, earning a perplex look from Natsuki, she knew it was bull but she would get it out of him later.

The girls just listened, they had no idea that there was a war going on. Of course being raised in Konoha would make one think that. Although it wasn't publicized, the Civil war in Kiri was kept under wraps and was in lockdown for the most part.

"Sorry." The girls said, there wasn't much they could say really.

"Don't worry about it, they made their choice, I made mine. I might not like it but I won't regret it." Naruto said sounding sincere.

The girls just stared at him with an odd glazed look in their eyes, it reminded him of the eyes of his so called Nee-chans that he worked under for a while, those women knew how to get information from an informant without them knowing it. That white haired old man was something scary alright but he was pudding against the girls.

Natsuki just let out a audible groan, she had seen that look before, some of the girls seemed to fall into the same look when Sasuke Uchiha was around. While she may not know what a crush or love felt like it was quite obvious that Sakura and Ino had a thing for the Uchiha, even Hinata used to throw a rare glance at the Uchiha, of course it fell out of practice but it still happened once upon a time.

'Did…did they have a moment?' Naruto thought. It was strange, girls seemed to get this odd moment of silence where they can all come to the same conclusion or something, girls were weird, that were his thoughts on girls.

* * *

><p>Eventually Naruto was dragged everywhere by the girls and he managed to hold his composure, it was really hard to follow a bunch of kids that were filled with sugar. He really wasn't the type to waste time, but he had to form some sort of life in Konoha so he forced himself to stay grounded.<p>

Eventually the girls had to leave because of various reasons, them being from their parents or someone from the clan came to pick them up to being dragged away for associating with Natsuki.

"It looks like it's time." Naruto said, looking at the setting sun.

"About time." Natsuki muttered, she didn't like waiting.

It was a quiet walk home, the lights around the village were turning on, and the more outgoing people started trickling into the streets. No one cared for a couple of kids wandering the streets at night, they had other things to worry about like getting laid or drinking their troubles away.

Eventually they got to Naruto's home and it was full. Full as in complete with dishes, utensils, furniture and everything he asked for including several scrolls that he asked for.

"This is cool, yet kind of creepy at the same time." Natsuki commented.

Naruto raised his eyebrow. "How?"

"Well, they got in without anyone knowing and, well its kind of scary knowing that random people can get into your home without anyone knowing." Natsuki commented.

Naruto nodded, he knew what she was talking about. In reality there was no such thing as privacy, there is just a matter of time before your secrets are revealed.

"So…uh…" Natsuki fidgeted.

"What do you want to know?" Naruto asked.

Natsuki just took a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing on her thoughts. What did she want to know? Her parents? Her apparent heritage if the Uzumaki clan thing had anything to do with it. The kyuubi, what he was doing, where to start.

"Everything." Natsuki said.

"Everything?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, everything. I want to know, I don't want to be left out. Everyone is hiding things from me, the Hokage, the village, you. I don't want to be used. I want to make my own decision and not what everyone else wants me to think." She said, her hands clenched and shaking with force.

Naruto sighed, he knew it was coming, admittedly he would ask the same. He didn't want to be used. It could hinder his plans but he knew what kind of people Natsuki trusted already, the kind that were truthful to her. He wondered what her actual reaction will be. "Very well, but I have to ask, will you regret it once you find out. This will be a secret, if anyone else finds out this information then there is no telling what will happen."

Natsuki gave an audible gulp. Were the secrets surrounding her that dangerous? Could she handle it. Without thinking she punched herself in the face, which totally surprised Naruto.

'Stop thinking me. I'm not some pathetic girl that will break down and cry like a flaky guy. I'm Uzumaki Natsuki dammit!' She thought, and she turned to naruto and gave him a determined glare. "I won't regret it."

'Those are nice eyes.' Naruto thought.

"Alright, I'll begin with the Uzumaki clan." Natsuki Nodded. "The Uzumaki clan were a clan that were famed for many things such as their strong life force, their potent chakra and their Fuinjutsu skills, they were also nicknamed the village of longevity. They were also distant relatives of the Senju clan." Naruto said.

"The Senju clan?" Natsuki said, she remembered they were important but she couldn't remember.

"They were a Clan that were famous, they have been around since the Clan wars over a hundred years ago. They are also famous because of their skills and for being the first and second Hokage, Hashirama and Tobirama Senju, but we're getting away from the point. Anyways, because the Uzumaki clan was feared for their Fuinjutsu skills they were for a lack of a better term destroyed." Naruto ended. Earning a gasp from Natsuki.

"Why?" She said holding back tears knowing that she once had a family. She had a clan and a freaking village.

"They were feared. The ability to do anything with Fuinjutsu. Fuinjutsu is an obscure are even by today's standards. Even now, more than 20 years into the future and with notes found from the ruins of Ushiogakure, the shinobi world is still decades behind of what an Uzumaki could do with Fuinjutsu. That is the reason they were feared. Iwa and Kumo allied themselves to destroy Ushio and Kiri did not help when they invaded because they would gain Ushiogakure's land and Konoha was too late to help. The reason that people hold the spiral behind the flak jackets of their uniform was a sign of good will and shame, for not helping their allies in their time of need." Naruto said.

"Were….Were their any survivors?" Natsuki asked.

"Yes, but they were scattered. There was an Uzumaki that came to Konoha but that was a few years before Ushiogakure fell. Her name was Uzumaki Kushina, very well known throughout the village as a violent girl when she was a child. Most called her the Red hot blooded habanero, and it started because they called her a tomato when she was younger. Surprisingly she's the last official Uzumaki making her clan head, so congratulations you are literally the princess of a fallen country." Naruto couldn't help but grin at the face of Natsuki, it seemed she was called the same, the princess part was cliché too.

Natsuki was happy to know who her mother was, but the thing was, it bothered her, how the hell does he know more about her own mother than her. "How do you know?" Natsuki couldn't help but blurt out, it sounded irrational but she couldn't help but pin the blame on the person that told her.

But Naruto understood, like always, one can't help but blame the bearer of bad news."Once one makes a friend with an Uzumaki, its almost impossible to forget them. I've met people that knew them, they're old but they have really interesting stories about them." Naruto said, of course he didn't mention anymore than that because they were really violent, also if you were lucky to get an Uzumaki after you, well one would end up a happy man/woman.

"So what else can you tell me?" Natsuki asked.

"I can tell you that you're not the only one that bears the burden of carrying a demon." Naruto said.

"What!? What do you mean?" Natsuki exclaimed.

"There are nine bijuu's. That means that 8 other people share the same burden. There technical name is called a Jinchuuriki." Naruto informed.

"Jinchuuriki…"" Natsuki muttered, getting used to the term.

"Like you many of them are seen as less than human, although there are the rare few that are excluded from the burden for whatever reasons, they have the same thing in common, they suffered. But that is what a Jinchuuriki is, a Human Sacrifice. They are meant to be used as weapons, there is no exception." Naruto said with a smirk.

Natsuki exploded when she saw it. "We're human dammit! We weren't given a choice, we never wanted the burden of having a stupid demon inside us. Those glares, the pity, the pain, I don't want it!" Natsuki cried out.

"Too bad. As soon as it happened, your chance of being normal went out the window. When you decided to become a ninja, you gave up the chance of being just an outcast, you are a weapon now, just like every ninja." Naruto said, coldly.

"Shut up! Why are you telling me this!?" Natsuki cried out in despair, why was her life like this? She wanted to get respect, fight and show that she wasn't what they made her out to be. But now…

'Because you need to hear it. Whether you like it or not, this is how the world works right now. This world is full of darkness! You either accept it and change it as much as you can or fall trying or giving up!" Naruto yelled at the girl.

"Why…Why should I believe you!?" Natsuki yelled at him. She knew she could trust him, she just needed a reason.

"You shouldn't." Naruto stated in a flat tone.

Silence.

"W-What?" Natsuki stammered, did he just say what she thought he said?

"You shouldn't trust me, at least not so easily. The world is full of evil people, and I just so happen to be one of them." Naruto started to laugh making the red headed Jinchuuriki to step back.

"You…" Natsuki shivered, he just admitted he was a bad guy after all, was he going to hurt her.

"I intent to use you, Uzumaki Natsuki." Naruto said with a grin.

"What!?" She cried out. 'He wants to use me?' She thought.

"I will use you. Every success, every failure, every achievement that you do, I will exploit for my own benefit. Every time you fall down, I'll force you back up. Every time you succeed, I'll tell you that you can be better. Every great achievement you make is a step closer to my goals, you will be mine, Uzumaki Natsuki!" Naruto said.

"What's stopping me from blabbing to everyone what you are?" Natsuki countered, she was getting scared, she never dealt with someone like him before.

"Because like it or not, I will never lie to you, I may not tell you the whole truth but that just depends on you becoming able to think for yourself and use your head. The village hates you, the people you care about suffer because of you, they hold you back. But you already know this right, that's why you distanced yourself from everyone.

Natsuki gritted her teeth, Where did he come off talking to her about this! He was going to use her, she hated the thought of it. She didn't want to be enslaved by anyone.

"I won't enslave you." Naruto said.

"How'd you-"

"Your far too easy to predict. But like I said, I won't enslave you."

"You just said you were going to use me!" Natsuki yelled out.

"Don't confuse what I said, this is what I meant about using your head. I have no intentions of holding you captive." Naruto said, walking towards the pile of scrolls and tossing them to a shocked Natsuki.

"I'm going to set you free. I'm going to make you shine, Uzumaki Natsuki. You'll gather people and I'll take advantage of that. The brighter you shine, the greater the shadows become, the stronger you become, the more power I'll gain. Even without knowing you made a deal with a devil, and I won't let you escape. You'll be my queen in the chess pieces of the game." Naruto's smile almost seemed to split his face.

Natsuki was shaking, what had she done. What was happening? Did she sell her soul to a demon in a boys skin? She wouldn't let it happen. She'll get strong enough to oppose him! She gritted her teeth almost wanting to lash out and beat his smile of his face. But she had to ask herself, was it worth it?

"Like I said, I'll just take advantage of you. I won't interfere with your life, I'll help you train of course. I mean what can a clanless orphan do against a classroom full of clan heirs. You can either struggle or accept my generous offer." Naruto said.

"Generous my ass!" Natsuki shouted.

"I'm being more than lenient. Do you have any idea what I'm doing to keep you out of the fire? No, you don't but that's because you won't see the darkness. You'll experience it but you won't indulge in it."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you really think your life is as easy as you make it out to be?"

"Easy? Easy! My life hasn't been easy! I'm freaking despised by the whole village, if I'm not careful of how I act, they'll blame me for some stupid thing and try to kill me, how can it get worse!?"

"How about being a mindless slave?"

"H-Huh?" Natsuki said, not expecting it.

"You think the Hokage would leave you to your own devices, yes he would. He thinks you can have a normal life, how stupid is he?" Naruto said.

"Don't insult the Old man." Natsuki said.

"You have a point, he may seem like he's doing nothing to help but you have no idea. Do you know what they can do to you?"

"W-who's they?" Natsuki wondered.

"The village and it's people. Natsuki, you are a weapon to them, and thus you have no rights. The 'Old man' as you call him has to keep people who want to turn you into a mindless weapon away, people who want to kill you away, people that want you as a breeding factory away, and all while managing the whole village. In reality, he picked the lesser of the evils, he knew you wouldn't have a normal life but he could hope you did, but you saw how that turned out." Naruto informed.

"And there's what I'm doing. I'm helping you get stronger. I'm helping you achieve your own goals. I'm helping you in what he can't. So it's only fair I get my money back, just in a different currency." Naruto continued.

Natsuki had her world turned around. Was he really doing as much as he said, Had she thought about what the Hokage was doing for her? No, she assumed he left her alone and left it at that. It went deeper then she thought.

"What… What exactly is going on?" She was completely out of it, everything doing with her was decided by someone else.

"And that is exactly one of the questions that you needed to ask. You are being manipulated foolish girl, do you think my offer would only benefit me? No, as I climb, you climb even higher. The higher you are the more control you have over your own destiny? Will you accept my hand? Or will you continue to watch as your precious people struggle to keep you alive?"

Damn it!

She had no choice, if she wanted to move on her own she needed to play the game.

But he was helping her, that was clear.

She realized then, she really made a deal with the devil.

Her devil with angel wings.

A devil that will give and took what he gave.

"You really are a bastard, you know that?" Natsuki said, shaking his hand, inside she was grinning, he really wasn't as bad as she thought. He was helping her at least, she felt that he wasn't telling her everything but that would come in time.

"A bastard? Please, I'm a devil." Naruto smirked.

* * *

><p>(Far away)<p>

It was dirty.

Shackles everywhere. Women hanging of shackles, bound to the walls where many lay almost motionless, the only sign that they were alive were the constant rising in the near exposed chests.

There was a little girl shaking in her place. She was cold, and hungry, she wanted to go out and see the sun at least once more. She wanted to see her mother one last time, she wondered what happened to her, she prayed that they didn't do the same thing that she saw men do to the women around her. Miho, was scared, she wished it was all a dream, but every time she woke up, she saw the same thing.

She heard footsteps, her heart beat erratically as she heard more. She didn't want to look up, they had already taken all the other children, they said they would save the best for last and that was her apparently. Try as she might she couldn't stop the tears from flowing down her face.

The footsteps stopped right in front of her and she heard other people walking towards the other women.

"Are you ok?" She heard. It wasn't the usual voice, it sounded younger and higher pitch. She hesitantly looked up to see a small person, almost her own size kneeling in front of her. She wondered what was going on until she felt the bonds tying her down fall.

She looked at her hands, astonished that there was nothing weighing them down anymore. She felt a hand against her cheek. She lifted her head to see the boy rubbing her cheeks, wiping the tears she didn't know she had.

"Come on, we'll get you out of here." He said.

The girl nodded as she felt she was being picked up. But she felt too tired to stay awake, all the stress that she had suddenly left her body, she felt so tired, she just wanted to sleep.

As the girl was taken away, a person walked towards the boy, as he slowly made his way outside.

"Sir, there condition s not well, I doubt that they will find their way back to their lives and most of them don't have the will to go on." A rather gruff man said, if it had been anybody else who he was talking to, he would make a joke that he was short but the boy, if he was one commanded fear and respect.

"Have the ones that can still think go to Sweet Haven. The rest, look for people that need someone in there lives that can help them, hopefully they'll get a bit of life into those eyes of theirs, you can have one if you want, but you know my rules." He said. The man nodded.

His boss was as kind as he was cruel. This was one of the few slave cartels that they have stopped, some of them were worse then others. But the boy decided that he could put the broken ones to use. The ones that had nowhere to go would get some support until they could find their way or work at a brothel and hope they get lucky and find someone there. As for the broken ones, he had good people watch over them, the kind of self respected people that somehow ended up in their line of business.

Those who might find one of the girls fancy will have their way with them but not as slaves, but as mistress so to speak. They would care for them until they regain their lost selves and if they fell in love, then great for them. Children were either sent to orphanages or sent to train if they should choose and expand their growing number of members.

Though his name was strange. Who calls themselves Black King?

"Taro, have the papers and supplies been taken yet?" The boy said.

"Yes, their being transported as we speak, boss." Taro said.

"Good, that's all for now.'

Not many people knew what the Black king thought. Was he a ninja because everyone seemed to be thrown off at his appearance which seemed to be of a small child. Everyone thought that the child was his double so to say, it was so ridiculous that it was ingenious.

The Black King, his appearance sparked many beginnings for the world, one that would affect the world. While none knew much about the mysterious enigma that was quickly rising in the underworld, it was clear that he was going to make an enemy of the world.

* * *

><p>Author's note<p>

Fuck yeah! What did you guys think? This chapter was kind of focused on development. As I have stated before, I rarely plan these stories out but I leave a lot of leeway into them if I need to. Any ideas to make this story badass is encouraged.

I'll be alternating perspectives in each chapter now. Hopefully I can pull it off.

I might start a one shot only story. I've had a few ideas and I want to get them out, eventually. Hopefully my next story is updated faster.


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